Tuesday, 20 September 2011

A lot can change in two days ...

Please disregard my last post. I think I'll be leaving Hybrid Theory alone for a while, and from now on I'm making sure Susan sticks to her half of the brain.

There are a few things I'd like to talk about, so be warned - it's likely to be a long post.

I managed to get back into college on Monday. I had a bit of a dry throat and I was still producing more mucus than usual, but I was feeling a lot better than at the end of last week. Filling in the self-certification form was fun. One of the questions was why I was absent, and said that I must include more detail than just saying I was ill. I can't remember everything I put down, but I remember thinking "Is that enough detail for you, Mr. Form?".

I gave A back her cd, and she lent me the next one. More about that later though. B also lent me a cd; Invaders Must Die by The Prodigy. I haven't listened to it yet, but I will have by tomorrow night (probably).

Me and B share an afternoon class on Tuesday, and A has classes in the morning, so usually B and I will get there an hour early and we all have lunch together. Today there was somebody with A. She said to us "Have you met C?" by way of introduction. Me, B and C started laughing. As it turns out, C is in our English class. He seems like a nice guy. He always wears the best t-shirts. I'm ashamed to say I felt a bit alarmed, but after a quick conversation with A, she reassured me she hadn't told him about my hallucinations.

And I don't know how it happened, but my friends have convinced me to go clubbing with them on Saturday. I've still to clear it with my parents, but I'll probably talk to them over supper.

In response to my last post, I don't mind waiting. I've decided to take the longer, easier path. It's not like I'm not already getting stronger, and this way there's not that massive risk of complete rejection. I might test the water at some point, though. I'm not sure how yet, but given the subject matter of the novel we're studying for English, I'm sure an opportunity will show itself.

So, on to A Thousand Suns. The first listen was ... chilling, to say the least. Images of a multi-armed "death" figure, themes of apocalypse, suffering, and ultimately resolution. There was a lot in the album that could relate to, um, "current events". Some of it was about large-scale chaos and destruction, some of was about more everyday struggles. I recognised "Iridescent" from the Transformers film. (To be honest, I think the way I would have paired the songs and films would have been 1. Iridescent, 2. What I've Done, and 3. New Divide, but Time doesn't seem to appreciate art.)

I would definitely recommend the album to anyone who had gone through tough times, whether recent or not so recent. As with other Linkin Park albums, it recognises the struggle. But this one also gives hope. And not just a vague "it might get better in time", it's a definite "you will heal if you just give yourself the chance".

As I've mentioned, some of the imagery reminded me of that
faceless monstrosity that's taken it upon himself to ruin everybod's
lives. In fact, a large portion of the album resonated with the kind of
things we're seeing at the moment, and what might lie in the future of
this world. It was almost scary, how closely it seemed to match up. That said, there are other, more publicised, current events that it probably corresponds to. But one of the things about music (and art in general) is that it can take on different contexts depending on who views it.

Anyway, it's getting near supper time. See you all tomorrow, maybe.

Edit: Oh, you might have noticed a change in the layout. I got bored yesterday during a break, so I decided to log on to one of the computers and muck about. That might sound bad, but it's not any worse than what the other students (well, I assume they were students) were doing. Most of them were on Facebook!